Does posting work here harm our chances of being published?

Just stop. Really.

 

Not a drop spilled.

 

"Just stop" feeling appreciation for the people who keep this forum running?

No.

You may claim that's not what you mean, but it most certainly sounds like it.

 

Is there ever a disagreement that doesn’t involve you that you pass up?

 

Is there ever a disagreement that doesn’t involve you that you pass up?

Moose, you’re not the Wreybies whisperer and trying to align yourself as such as the basis for taking yet another prissy, unwarranted slap at me is obvious bs that only a total moron wouldn’t see right through.

 

This doesn't involve me? I don't use the Review Room? I'm not a participant on this forum?

Huh. Who knew?

 

I have a good solid answer to my concerns about the greater good of the board from Wreybies so I’m satisfied and that’s it. Not interested in one more minute of this other nonsense. It’s too beautiful of a day here so blocking now. Get happy.

 

Ignoring the overall issue of whether agents/publishers/etc. object to one's work being presented on a passworded forum, there remains the issue that this passworded forum can be accessed by all sorts of people I don't know.

So far, two (count 'em, two) people have seen big chunks of my primary WIP. One is here on this forum, one lives four blocks away from me. Two other people, also in my home town, have seen smaller chunks.

I'm just not comfortable with expanding that to a potential audience of thousands. There's not remotely any reason why a person would copy/paste some of my text to be spun to produce web content, or whatever. But I nevertheless like to know the people who have access to my stuff, and limit that population to people who would never, ever do that.

So when I post to this forum to the workshop, I will be posting small chunks, or perhaps short stories, because my investment in them is smaller.

 

I think what they meant was "Stop making excuses for someone who retains full ownership privileges of the website but isn't around very often and doesn't address problems". I don't think it sounded like they were complaining about Wreybies.

 

I’m still not OK with it, or with their giving orders.

 

For some reason, this thread has turned into a rather distasteful battleground. I'm closing it for a few days to let everyone settle down.

 

I asked Jessica Faust about this during a Twitter Q&A. She's the owner of BookEnds Literary Agency (one of the top 5 agencies in my genre among others) and was previously an editor with Wiley, Macmillan, and Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House. She's been in publishing since 1994.

I asked if a work would be considered published if we posted it on a password-protected site. She said it would depend on the site and the publisher's views. I then clarified that I meant a writers' site for critique, and she said:



So there's another data point for people worried about this.

 

You're doing God's work. Thank you.

 

Thanks @Tenderiser. I think her view is pretty standard these days. Good to let people know so they don’t worry needlessly.

 

This may be a dumb question, but if part of a work is an unshared, private document on Google Docs/Drive, does that count?

 

The answer to this question is sometimes yes and sometimes no. I've contacted various publishes about it. It's case by case. There is no 'yes' or 'no' answer to this. I'm not sure how this got so intense as an issue either.

You would have to contact the individual publisher and find out from them to know for sure.

From my experience, most don't care.